Described as 'the Citizen Kane of British pop movies' by critic Mark Kermode, Slade in Flame both confounded and delighted audiences when it was released in 1975, at the height of the legendary glam-rock band's success. Starring the band themselves, this was a music film like no other.
Charting the rise and fall of a pop group at the end of the 1960s - from bold beginnings in seedy clubs to booze-addled endings in spectacular stadiums - this darkly cynical, warts-and-all portrait of a band in freefall amidst the music-industry suits who want a piece of the pie, was not what anybody was expecting.
Acclaimed as a stone-cold bona-fide cult classic over subsequent decades, and boasting a razor-sharp screenplay, superb performances and a power-packed foot-stomping soundtrack, Slade in Flame has been newly remastered by the BFI from the best available 35mm materials for its 50th Anniversary re-release.
